Effects of dielectric constant and secondary electron emission coefficient on discharge characteristics and products of Ar/NH3 DBD

Abstract

Atmospheric Ar/NH3 dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) is a type of uniform dielectric barrier discharge that has potential applications in surface treatment, thin film surface deposition, hydrogen storage, etc. The characteristics and the application effects of Ar/NH3 DBD are strongly dependent on dielectric materials, electrode structures, and gas atmospheres. In this paper, a one-dimensional fluid numerical simulation model was established to investigate the effects of dielectric constant and secondary electron emission coefficient (SEEC) of the barrier dielectric material on the discharge characteristics and product distributions in Ar/NH3 gas mixture. The results show that increasing dielectric constant makes the discharge moment slightly earlier (discharge phase 17.5°–5°) and has a greater effect on the discharge intensity (discharge current), plasma parameters, and discharge products as well as their yields. While increasing SEEC makes the discharge moment significantly earlier (discharge phase 27.5° to −5°), it has less influence on the discharge intensity (discharge current), plasma parameters, and discharge products and their yields. On this basis, a possible strategy was proposed to describe the effect of the two dielectric parameters on the discharge characteristics and products.